DESIGN-BUILD SERVICES_process | _timeline | _benefits With an architecture firm to provide complete design services and a construction company to provide complete build services, Woodruff Companies is the only company one needs to contact for their complete new construction, addition, or renovation needs. Offering Design-Build services, Woodruff Companies is working for you from the start to the finish making sure everything runs as smooth as possible. However, many are not familiar with the efficiency and the positive values of a Design-Build company. Woodruff Companies are dedicated to providing cost-effective, functional and aesthetic architectural and construction services to our clients, therefore we offer the Design-Build delivery method. This method combines the experience of Woodruff Construction (providing general construction services for 50 years) with the expertise of our architectural staff at Woodruff Design, LLC. As such a team, we are able to offer you a wide range of design and construction services:
The design-build process provides single source responsibility for your construction project and avoids many inherent conflicts and inefficiencies with the traditional design-bid-build system. Woodruff Companies focus on combining the design, permit and construction schedules in order to capture the time lost in traditional projects. Other advantages of design-build include increased accountability by Woodruff Design and Woodruff Construction, a single source project delivery and value-based project feedback allowing you, as the owner, to communicate your goals/needs throughout the project. Our experience allows us the ability to fast track projects, utilizing the benefits of combined services to improve risk management and provide tighter cost control. The advantages of Woodruff’s in-house Design-Build services will benefit you through a more efficient total construction solution. ProcessThe delivery steps and time frames for a typical design-build project are described in broad terms below.
BenefitsThe benefits to be gained in establishing a well-designed and managed design-build process include the following:Singular Responsibility: With both design and construction in the hands of a single entity, there is a single point of responsibility for quality, cost and schedule adherence, which avoids finger pointing. The owner is able to focus on scope/needs definition and timely decision making, rather than on coordination between the designer and builder. Quality: The greater responsibility implicit in design-build serves as a motivation for high quality and the proper performance of building systems. Once the owner's requirements and expectations are documented in performance terms, it is the design-builder's responsibility to produce results accordingly. The design-builder warrants to the owner that the design documents are complete and free from error. Cost Savings: Design and construction personnel, working and communicating as a team, evaluate alternative materials and methods efficiently and accurately. Value engineering and constructability are utilized more effectively when the designers and contractors work as one team during the design process. Time Savings: Because design and construction are overlapped, and because bidding periods and redesign time are eliminated, total design/construction time can be significantly reduced. Design-build is ideal for the application of "fast track" construction techniques. Under this method, construction work is allowed to begin in advance of the working drawings being fully completed. The time savings translates into lower costs and earlier utilization of the completed facility. Potential for Reduced Administrative Burden: Under a streamlined procurement process, the potential exists for design-build to reduce the owner's administrative burden. Initially, preparing RFPs and conducting evaluations can be resource intensive; however, this effort should lessen after an early learning curve. After award of the design-build contract, the owner will not have to invest his time and money coordinating and arbitrating between separate design and construction contracts. Early Knowledge of First Costs: Because the entity responsible for design is simultaneously estimating construction costs and can accurately conceptualize the completed project at an early stage, guaranteed construction costs are known far sooner than is otherwise possible. This permits early establishment of financing, reduces exposure to cost escalation, and avoids the possibility of committing substantial time and money for design, only to learn that the cost of the project is prohibitive. Risk Management: Project performance aspects of cost, schedule, and quality can clearly be defined and appropriately balanced (individual risks are managed by the party best able to be positioned to manage that risk). Change Orders due to drawing and specification errors are eliminated because the correction of such issues is the responsibility of the design-builder, not the owner. After the owner outlines his needs in the RFP, he will receive different design/cost solutions representing the best thinking of several design-builders, enabling the owner to better manage the financial risk connected with the project. Balanced Award Criteria Leading to Best Value: By giving credit in the award mechanism for design quality, functional efficiency, team experience and other factors in addition to price, an owner can select a proposal that reflects the greatest value and not simply the lowest first cost. For more information visit www.dbia.org |
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